Category Archives: IMA Electives (Legacy Structure – Seminar/Studies)

Courses that count in IMA’s Seminar/Studies category

Summer 2022 Summer 2024

Disability, Technology, and Media (CSTS-UH 1091J)

Starting from the premise that disability is a social phenomenon, rather than an individual and medical one, this course asks: How do media and technology shape disability? And how might disability activism and disability studies inform better design? We will consider the significance of technology to the definition and experience of disability in a cross-cultural perspective. Topics include: universal and critical design; the contested category of “assistive technology”; visual rhetorics of disability in photography and film; staring and other practices of looking; disability aesthetics; biomedicine/biotech and the establishment of norms. Drawing on disability arts and activism, we will also practice techniques for media accessibility such as captioning, alt text, plain language, and video description. Note: Pending feasible travel conditions we will hold lessons on disability aesthetics and museum access at Louvre Abu Dhabi among other art spaces. We will also partner with Mawaheb Art Studio for People of Determination to help them make their exhibition for the Quoz Arts Festival accessible. Following the disability activist principle “nothing about us without us,” we will host guest lecturers with a wide range of disability expertise.

Core: Structures of Thought & Society (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 2 Weeks

IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Undergraduate
Summer 2022

Technophilia and Its Discontents (CCEA-UH 1043)

Why must Luke Skywalker turn off his in computer at the climactic moment of George Lucas’s iconic film Star Wars (1977)? The film started a revolution in cinematic special-effects, but underlying its narrative logic is a deeply rooted anxiety about the right uses of technology. If man, as Hannah Arendt famously put it, is homo faber, the “creator,” the tool-making animal, then from at least Plato to the present, human beings have told stories about how dangerous tools can be. This course investigates philosophical writing, novels, plays, and films from a variety of world cultures to explore the vexed relationship between humans and the technologies they create. Why are human beings, perhaps more than ever at the start of the 21st century, so enamored with technological progress? Why is technophilia, the love of technology, so often accompanied by its opposite, technophobia, the fear of technology? What do the attitudes represented in the texts and films we examine tell us about human agency and about the relationship between science and religion?

Core: Cultural Exploration & Analysis (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 3 Weeks

Sections (Summer 2022)

CCEA-UH 1043-000 (6042)06/13/2022 – 07/07/2022 Mon,Tue,Wed,Thu1:00 PM – 3:00 PM (Early afternoon)at Abu DhabiInstructed by Patell, Cyrus

IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Undergraduate
Summer 2022

Technology and Social Media: Identity and Development in Children and Young Adults (CAM-UY 2012)

Students will learn how technology impacts the development and changed the experiences of children and young adults. Students will respond critically and explore the relationship between children, young adults, and the environment they navigate and explore the relationship between social media and development in relation to advancing technology. Additionally, students will explore ethical theory in relation to society and innovation. Through readings, discussions and presentations, students will develop analyzed solutions for problems experienced via interactions with technology and social media. In this online learning collaborative course, students will create evidence – based solutions to solving society’s predicament with the evolution of social media.

Culture, Arts, and Media (Undergraduate)
2 credits – 6 Weeks

Sections (Summer 2022)

CAM-UY 2012-000 (5821)05/23/2022 – 07/06/2022 Mon6:00 PM – 8:00 PM (Evening)at ePolyInstructed by Woodrup, Jenelle

IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Undergraduate
Fall 2022

Ethics, Technology, and Business (BUSOR-UH 1009)

This course examines the ethical issues that arise in the context of the rapid development of technology and the increasing power of business corporations. In recent years, technological progress has allowed us to achieve many things, including the creation of intelligent machines that can surpass human capabilities. Yet, for all these benefits, the development of science and technology has spawned a host of problems such as: conflict between individual rights and social welfare; clash between respect for personal autonomy and expertise; automation and unemployment; and the replication of human bias by algorithms. Along with technological progress, the social role of businesses and corporations are also becoming increasingly important. How should corporations, for example, balance the pursuit of profit with respect for employees’ rights and liberties? Should the state refuse to enforce unconscionable contracts, even when enforcing those contracts would make both parties better off? What is the social role of corporations in the context of increasing inequality?

Business & Organizational Studies (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2022)

BUSOR-UH 1009-000 (17905)08/29/2022 – 12/13/2022 Tue,Thu9:00 AM – 11:00 AM (Morning)at Abu DhabiInstructed by Kim, Soo Jin

IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Undergraduate
Spring 2023

Networks, Crowds and Markets (TECH-UB 60)

This is a course on how the social, technological, and natural worlds are connected, and how the study of networks sheds light on these connections. Topics include: social network structure and its effects on business and culture; crowdsourcing; games on graphs; the propagation through networks of information, fads and disease; small worlds, network effects, and “rich-get-richer” phenomena; the power of networks for prediction; the power of the network for web search; networks and social revolutions, and the melding of economics, machine learning, and technology into new markets, such as “prediction markets” or markets for on-line advertisements.The class will be a combination of lectures based on the textbook and guest lectures from well-known experts on these topics, primarily Stern faculty (a well-known center of excellence for research on networks, crowds, and markets).One main goal of this class is to work our way through most of the new, acclaimed textbook: Networks, Crowds, and Markets: Reasoning About a Highly Connected World, by David Easley and Jon Kleinberg. http://www.cs.cornell.edu/home/kleinber/networks-book/networks-book.pdf The textbook readings will be complemented with classic and recent research papers.

Computing and Data Science (Undergraduate)
3 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Spring 2023)

TECH-UB 60-000 (19341)at Washington SquareInstructed by

IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Undergraduate

Info Technology in Business & Society (TECH-UB 9001)

Credits: 4
Duration: 14 Weeks
Dates:
Credits: 4
Duration: 14 Weeks
Dates: Tue
Credits: 4
Duration: 14 Weeks
Dates: Tue,Thu

Provides the background necessary to make decisions about computer-based information systems and to be an “end-user”. Two major parts of the course are hands-on experience with personal computers and information systems management. Group and individual computer assignments expose students to electronic spreadsheet analysis and database management on a personal computer. Management aspects focus on understanding computer technology, systems analysis and design, and control of information processing by managers.

Computing and Data Science (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

Fall 2025 IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Programming & Data) IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Spring 2026 Undergraduate
Fall 2022

Sound and the City (ARTS-UG 1494)

New York’s soundscape is hard to ignore: it can be overwhelming, it is always intricate, but also surprisingly subtle, and there is much that we hear that we don’t really listen to. We will interrelate the subjects of noise, silence, and the city, ranging from important moments in the history of noise abatement in New York City to the philosophy and work of composers such as John Cage. New York City’s diverse population strongly affects and produces its unique soundscape; how does this particular city reflect its inhabitants? There will be off-site field trips to events such as the West Indian Day Parade in Brooklyn, as well as visits to sited works such as Max Neuhaus’s Times Square. We will consider how sound is often explicitly designed to affect and influence us in places such as retail environments. How do our attempts to mediate sound with devices like headphones affect our listening? Students will engage the ideas of writers such as Stuart Hall, Jacques Attali, Luigi Russolo, John Cage, Emily Thompson, R. Murray Schaefer, and Shuhei Hosokawa, as well as works by Christina Kubisch, Susan Phillipz, and Pauline Oliveros. There will be three short production assignments, some of which will be made for specific sites in the city as a way of investigating the interplay between public spaces and listening. At its core, you will be asked to consider the politics and subjectivity of your own listening as a citizen of New York. Who do you hear? How do you sound?

Arts Workshops (Undergraduate)
2 credits – 8 Weeks

IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Undergraduate
Fall 2022

Communicating For Influence (IMBX-SHU 104)

Communication sits at the core of all human interactions and is highly valued in workplaces. Beyond the minimal goal of articulating and presenting one’s ideas effectively, communication also involves building empathy, cultivating an eye for detail, developing awareness of goals and contexts, and integrating critical and reflective thinking. How can we communicate our own projects to different audiences? Why should other people care? What types of media can we use and how do we know they are effective? How can collaborative and participatory elements help to improve engagement levels? This course aims to guide students to review and create their own learning profiles as they learn to engage a diverse range of targeted audience. Prerequisite: Not open to freshman. Fulfillment: IMA Major Electives; IMB Major Interactive Media Elective.

Interactive Media and Business (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2022)

IMBX-SHU 104-000 (22138)09/05/2022 – 12/16/2022 Thu1:00 PM – 4:00 PM (Early afternoon)at ShanghaiInstructed by Wang, Nicole

IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Undergraduate
Spring 2022

The Minimum Viable Product: The Lean Launchpad (IMBX-SHU 201)

This class is based on the entrepreneurship methodology of Steve Blank, “The Lean Launchpad” with some changes to adapt it to our specific circumstances. The methodology enables to test and develop business models based on querying and learning from customers. This is a practical class – essentially a lab. Our goal, within the constraints of a limited amount of time, is to help you find a repeatable and scalable business methodology for your startup. This will allow you to build a company with substantially less money and in a shorter amount of time than using traditional methods. Rapidly iterate your product to build something people actually want. You will build minimum viable products (MVPs) weekly to avoid hypotheticals and get real customer feedback that you can use to iterate (small adjustments) or pivot (substantive changes) faster. Prerequisite:‌ ‌Junior to Senior only (exceptions granted on a case by case basis). Fulfillment: IMA/IMB Elective.

Interactive Media and Business (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Undergraduate

Making Virtual Sense: 3D Graphic Studio for Critically-Driven Creative Applications (ARTS-UG 1647)

Until recently, the creation of interactive 3D graphics was only possible for large and capital-intensive uses: the armed forces, large-scale architectural/engineering work, mass entertainment. Now, open-source applications and powerful personal and portable computers are making it practical for individuals and small groups to independently build and share alternative visions. Whether you are interested in exploring new ways to construct complex networks of ideas in the present, or to imagine physical spaces to reflect and support new ways of life, this arts workshop provides a blend of critical orientation and hands-on experience. In this open project studio, the majority of course time and work will be taken up with the development of student-built individual or small team concepts, to be developed as 3D graphic “fly-through” models. Theoretical discussions will be initiated with a mix of relevant writings and media. Here is a representative sampling of sources: Douglas Engelbart, Eric Raymond, William Gibson, Zaha Hadid, Judith Donath, the Athenian Acropolis, the Kalachakra mandala, Salisbury Cathedral, the Schindler house, Artigas gardens, the 1958 World’s fair Philips pavilion, the Seagram’s building, Grant Theft Auto IV, the monastery of La Tourette, the Mangin plan, compendium.org, Betaville.

Arts Workshops (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

Fall 2025 IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Undergraduate

Memoir and Anti-Memoir: Experiments in Text and Image (CADT-UH 1027)

Credits: 4
Duration: 15 Weeks
Dates:

How does one attempt to write or portray the self? If we associate that practice with traditional memoir and self-portraiture forms, what happens when subjectivity is fundamentally unstable or under attack? Is the genre also simultaneously deconstructed? How is subjectivity literally made and remade through the exploration of new forms? In this course we will look at text and image projects across cultures, eras, locations, and across art forms that raise questions about the self and the collective, representation and memory, and about the remarkable as well as the everyday. Sometimes the doubt about attempts at portrayals is philosophical, but it may also be cultural-historical and context-dependent. To explore this question, and to develop skills in art, to experiment with the studio habits of artists, and to generate our own poetics of memoir/anti-memoir we will generate text and image experiments that both create and investigate an anti-memoir body of work.

Core: Arts, Design and Technology (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Spring 2026 Undergraduate
Fall 2023 Fall 2024 Spring 2022

Silence (CADT-UH 1052)

How does “silence” help to define our sense of being and existence? Across different cultures, various philosophies of art, science, and society have viewed and thought about silence differently. This course invites students to think about and experience silence by asking three fundamental questions: 1) What does it mean to be silent? (Literally and metaphorically); 2) Does silence shape our lives? And if so, how? 3) Can we have an active relationship and recognition with silence just as we do with sound or action? Drawing on multi-disciplinary sources from around the world to explore the philosophical frameworks and thought systems that have engaged in the study and observation of silence, the syllabus will include works of art, literature, theater, films, architecture, and music, which students will engage via a mix of seminar, lecture, and studio methods of teaching, to enable the creations of their own artistic responses to their experience of silence and the material presented in class.

Core: Arts, Design and Technology (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2024)

CADT-UH 1052-000 (19965)08/26/2024 – 12/10/2024 Tue,Thu12:00 AM – 2:00 PM (Early afternoon)at Abu DhabiInstructed by Özhabeş, Özlem

IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Undergraduate

Creativity and Innovation (CADT-UH 1005)

Credits: 4
Duration: 15 Weeks
Dates: Tue,Thu

Is creativity a gift or a skill? Can creativity be learned? Because creativity is deeply personal, this course will address these questions through individual and collective experiences. The heart of this course is the Personal Creativity Project – an opportunity for students to practice creativity by designing and executing a project of their choice. The project may be on any topic, from art and music to computer programs and business model development. The project will be complemented by reading assignments (completed prior to class), class discussions, and one-on-one meetings with the instructor. Students will leave the course with a completed project and a personal philosophy of creativity, based on the fusion of readings, study, discussion, and experience. The course provides a great deal of freedom for learning and does not provide step-by-step instructions. As a result, the successful completion of this course will require a significant amount of self-motivation.

Core: Arts, Design and Technology (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Fall 2025 IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Art & Design) IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Spring 2026 Undergraduate
Spring 2022 Spring 2023

Social Media & Digital Marketing (TECH-UB 38)

This course examines the major trends in digital marketing using tools from business analytics and data science. While there will be sufficient attention given to top level strategy used by companies adopting digital marketing, the focus of the course is also on business analytics: how to make firms more intelligent in how they conduct business in the digital age. Measurement plays a big role in this space. The course is complemented by cutting-edge projects and various business consulting assignments that the Professor has been involved in with various companies over the last few years. Prof Ghose has consulted in various capacities for Apple, AMD, Berkeley Corporation, Bank of Khartoum, CBS, Dataxu, Facebook, Intel, NBC Universal, Samsung, Showtime, 3TI China, and collaborated with Alibaba, China Mobile, Google, IBM, Indiegogo, Microsoft, Recobell, Travelocity and many other leading Fortune 500 firms on realizing business value from IT investments, internet marketing, business analytics, mobile marketing, digital analytics and other topics.We will learn about statistical issues in data analyses such as selection problem, omitted variables problem, endogeneity, and simultaneity problems, autocorrelation, multi-collinearity, assessing the predictive power of a regression and interpreting various numbers from the output of a statistical package, various econometrics-based tools such as simple and multivariate regressions, linear and non-linear probability models (Logit and Probit), estimating discrete and continuous dependent variables, count data models (Poisson and Negative Binomial), cross-sectional models vs. panel data models (Fixed Effects and Random Effects), and various experimental techniques that help can tease out correlation from causality such as randomized field experiments.

Computing and Data Science (Undergraduate)
3 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Spring 2023)

TECH-UB 38-000 (19338)01/23/2023 – 05/08/2023 Thu6:00 PM – 9:00 PM (Evening)at Washington SquareInstructed by

IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Programming & Data) IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Undergraduate
Spring 2022 Spring 2023

Info Tech in Bus & Society (TECH-UB 1)

Provides the background necessary to make decisions about computer-based information systems and to be an “end-user”. Two major parts of the course are hands-on experience with personal computers and information systems management. Group and individual computer assignments expose students to electronic spreadsheet analysis and database management on a personal computer. Management aspects focus on understanding computer technology, systems analysis and design, and control of information processing by managers.

Computing and Data Science (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Spring 2023)

TECH-UB 1-000 (19329)at Washington SquareInstructed by

TECH-UB 1-000 (19330)at Washington SquareInstructed by

TECH-UB 1-000 (19331)at Washington SquareInstructed by

TECH-UB 1-000 (19336)at Washington SquareInstructed by

TECH-UB 1-000 (19337)at Washington SquareInstructed by

TECH-UB 1-000 (19339)at Washington SquareInstructed by

IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Undergraduate
Fall 2021

VFX in the Age of Virtual Production (INTM-SHU 257T)

In this era of virtual production, time-based media faces new opportunities and challenges in terms of pipelines, workflows, and distribution. Decentralizing, hybridizing, and outsourcing among film studios, production houses, broadcast design, interactive studios, and the gaming industry have become major topics of discourse in academia and industry. This course focuses on the history/context, present practice, and the emerging trends of VFX studies and its applications. Through collaborative research with academia and industry, the course investigates the theory and practice of VFX studies and further examines the feasibility of emerging technologies through the spirit of entrepreneurship. Prerequisite: Interaction Lab / Creative Coding Lab / Communications Lab / Application Lab Fulfillment: IMA Major Electives; IMB Major Interactive Media Elective.

Interactive Media Arts (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2021)

INTM-SHU 257T-000 (20125)08/30/2021 – 12/10/2021 Mon,Wed4:00 PM – 5:00 PM (Late afternoon)at ShanghaiInstructed by Chen, Wu Wei

IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Media & Entertainment) IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Undergraduate
Fall 2021

After Earth: Technology & Ecology (INTM-SHU 196T)

This class focuses on the history and theory of ecology-related digital media, emerging technological solutions to the environmental crisis, and cultural imaginations that address the possibility of human extinction and ecosystem collapse. Zooming in on both luddite and futurist proposals for post-carbon futures across the global political and cultural spectrum, the class discusses emerging technologies in scientific and popular discourses about ecological futures. From geo-enginnering to terraforming, space colonialism, genetic engineering, and other scenarios that relate to the technological survival of humanity in fraught environmental conditions, it aims to take students to the forefront of contemporary technological imaginations related to our future on (and off) this planet. Prereq: None. Fulfillment: IMA Major Electives; IMB Major Interactive Media Elective.

Interactive Media Arts (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Undergraduate
Fall 2021 Fall 2022

Elementary Yoruba I (SCA-UA 182)

Yoruba is a language spoken in West Africa by approximately 20 million people. This course is an introduction to Yoruba language, people and culture and is designed for students without prior knowledge. The main goal is to develop elementary communicative competence in the language. It is designed to enable students read, write, listen to and talk about simple concepts, ensuring that they can minimally understand and be understood in the language, while developing a fundamental knowledge of the Yoruba culture. Emphases are on Yoruba as used by contemporary native speakers in the present day West Africa. Skills are developed through intensive interactive conversations, grammar exercises, and classroom activities designed for a learner to use the language in various daily activities.

Social and Cultural Analysis (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2021)

SCA-UA 182-000 (9690)09/02/2021 – 12/14/2021 Mon,Wed,Fri9:00 AM – 10:00 AM (Morning)at Washington SquareInstructed by Mabayoje, Moses

General Elective IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Undergraduate
Fall 2022

Landcapes of Consumption (SCA-UA 625)

Consumption of objects, images, and places is central to the culture and economy of metropolitan life. The class will explore how the relationship between consumption and cities has developed by examining three key moments—the late nineteenth century and the invention of urban commodity spectacles, post-war America and the rise of suburban consumer spaces, and contemporary America and the selling of the commodity city. The class addresses three questions: Why do we want things? How does landscape organize our consumer desires? How does place become an object of consumption? We will begin with an examination of classic theoretical works that probe the relationships between people, things, and cities. We will then embed these in discussions of changing forms and practices of consumption and urbanism. The empirical cases we will examine range from the development of the department store, to the fashioning of commodity home, to the work of shopping, and to the emergence of a thriving urban debt industry.

Social and Cultural Analysis (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Societies & the Social Sciences Undergraduate